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ATLANTIC CITY, N. Morten Andersen Saints Jersey .J. -- Demitrius Conger had 22 points and 10 rebounds and St. Bonaventure advanced to the Atlantic 10 Conference championship game by holding off Massachusetts 84-80 on Saturday afternoon. Conference player of the year Andrew Nicholson of Mississauga, Ont., added 19 points for the fourth-seeded Bonnies (19-11), now one win from advancing to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2000. The Bonnies will face third-seeded Xavier for the championship and the automatic bid to the show on Sunday. The Musketeers (21-11) knocked off Saint Louis 71-64. Massachusetts (22-11) rallied from a 16-point deficit with 7:29 to play and had a chance to take the lead in the closing seconds, only to see Raphiael Putneys high-arcing 3-pointer hit off the side of the rim with less than 2 seconds to play. Matthew Wright hit two free throws to ice the game. Terrell Vinson had 20 for UMass, which knocked off top-seeded Temple on Friday. Pierre Thomas Saints Jersey . Most important, perhaps, it went off without a hitch. Organizers poked a little fun at the now-infamous opening ceremony gaffe that saw only four out of five snowflakes open up into rings, leaving the Olympics logo one ring short. Will Herring Saints Jersey . The overall big league average rose 5.4 per cent this season to a record $3.39 million, according to the annual report released Wednesday by the Major League Baseball Players Association. LOS ANGELES -- Yasiel Puig extended his career-best hitting streak to 12 games with his third home run in four days, a go-ahead three-run shot, and drew a bases-loaded walk in the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-5 win over the Florida Marlins on Monday night. Dan Haren (5-1) overcame a shaky start following his 3-2 loss at Washington last Wednesday, allowing three runs and seven hits over seven innings without walking a batter after losing his previous four decisions against the Marlins. The right-hander is 6-2 lifetime against Miami, the only other victory coming on a four-hit shutout in July 2009 with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Phoenix. Brian Wilson inherited a 6-3 lead from Haren and promptly gave up a leadoff walk to Christian Yelich and a home run by pinch-hitter and former Dodger Reed Johnson on the next pitch. But Kenley Jansen pitched a perfect ninth for his 12th save, one day after he was charged with three runs in the 10th inning of a 7-4 loss to San Francisco. Yelich helped stake Tom Koehler (3-3) to a 3-1 lead with a solo homer in the third, but the Marlins right-hander never made it through the fourth. He walked No. 8 hitter Drew Butera, then Dee Gordon with two outs, and Puig drove the next pitch into the pavilion seats in left-centre for his sixth home run to give Los Angeles a 4-3 lead. Koehler gave up four runs, six hits and five walks in 3 2-3 innings. In his previous two starts, he allowed no runs and five hits over 15 innings, beating the Dodgers 6-3 at Miami and following up with a no-decision against the New York Mets. Los Angeles added two more runs in the fifth, including an RBI single by Andre Ethier after Matt Kemp was grazed on the helmet by Henry Rodriguezs pitch and stole second on the right-handers next delivery to Ethier. Rodriguez also forced in a run with his bases-loaded walk to Puig. Kemp, playing in his 1,000th regular-season game, singled leading off the second inning and stolee second before Haren drove him in from third with a single that tied the score at 1. Khairi Fortt Saints Jersey. Yelich drove a 3-2 pitch to left-centre in the third for his fourth homer, giving the Marlins a 2-1 lead. It was the first of four consecutive hits against Haren, including an RBI single by Giancarlo Stanton that extended his career-best hitting streak to 14 games. But Jarrod Saltalamacchia grounded into an inning-ending double-play. Haren allowed only one more hit after that -- a leadoff double in the sixth by Stanton. First base umpire Laz Diaz, who was admonished by Major League Baseball last week for his role in the ejections of New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi on May 5 against the Angels had a call of his overturned in the Marlins first inning. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly challenged Diazs ruling that Stanton was safe, after Haren took the toss from Adrian Gonzalez on Stantons grounder and stepped on the bag a split-second before the runner did. Replays confirmed that Mattingly was correct, and Stanton had to settle for a run-scoring groundout, which helped increase his major league-leading RBIs total to 42. NOTES: Eighteen years ago this month, Marlins third base coach Brett Butler learned that he had tonsil cancer while playing for the Dodgers. This was his first visit to Chavez Ravine in a major league uniform since 2005, when he was the Diamondbacks first base coach. ... Dodgers 3B Juan Uribe, who missed the previous three games because of a sore right hamstring, took batting practice with his teammates and was declared "available in different roles" by Mattingly. But he remained on the bench. ... Twelve of Puigs 26 big league homers have come on the first pitch. ... Kemp had a career-high 40 stolen bases in 2011 before injuries to his left hamstring and left ankle limited him to a combined 179 games in 2012 and 2013. This was only the second time he has two steals in a game since Aug. 11, 2012, at Miami. ' ' ' |
